AFRICAN DISPUTES PIT ARAB VS. BLACK

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The article in a recent issue of a West African magazine described the Libya of centuries past, but few black African readers failed to grasp its implied message about the Libya of today. Its headline: ''The First Slave Traders.''

In the confrontation between Chad and Libya, African loyalties divide along the racial fault line that crosses the continent, separating black African from Arab African.

To the north, Arab nations are either silent or support Libya's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Libyan ranks are bolstered by advisers or mercenaries from Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Southern Yemen.

A common religion, Islam, provides a bridge between the Chadian and Libyan societies. But underneath Chad's Islamic overlay - mosques, Koranic schools, veiled women and the use of Arabic as a lingua franca - is the fact that most Chadians are black. And the Arabic word for a black person - iswid - means ''slave.''

Such slights, as well as the more overt acts of hostility alluded to in the headline of the magazine, have given rise to the deeply rooted suspicions that many black Africans hold toward Arabs.

These suspicions are easily manipulated by the Chadian Government. Chadian war propaganda makes liberal use of the term ''Libyan slavers.''

''Qaddafi is bringing a truly racist crusade against Chad and Africa,'' Chad's President, Hissen Habre, told an Ivoirian journalist late last year.

Not all Arab and African nations have fallen into racial blocs in the Chad-Libya dispute. Benin, Burkina Faso and Congo, three sub-Saharan countries with left-leaning foreign policies, have retained friendly relations with Libya. In the Arab world, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia maintain friendly, if low-profile, relations with Chad.

Some black Africans charge that Chad's military victories over Libya last year were distorted by the Arabs.

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''Kuwait radio said that it is not possible that black Africans take Arabs as prisoners,'' said Mahamat Nouri, who commanded Chadian troops in Aozou last year. ''The Secretary General of the Arab League said that Libya was an Arab nation under attack.''

In Mauritania, a black radio announcer reportedly was pulled off the air after he spoke about Chad's victory.

[ Last month, Colonel Qaddafi declared the war against Chad over and said he would recognize Mr. Habre's Government ''as a gift to Africa.'' The colonel made the announcement on May 25, the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity. ] Sahara a Buffer

The Sahara serves as a natural buffer between the two races. But at the southern edges of the desert, where the populations come together, relations are often tense.

Chad is just one example. In Mauritania last December, three black army officers were executed after a failed coup attempt against the Arab-run Government. Several dozen black officers were imprisoned and 500 black soldiers were purged from the army.

In the Sudan, the Arab-dominated, Islamic Government of Sadeq al-Mahdi is fighting black, Christian rebels in the south. Chadians are bitter that Mr. Mahdi, who spent time in exile in Libya, allows the Libyans to attack Chad from the western Sudan.

''Mahdi is a primitive racist in the style of 16th-century Arabs who dreamed of Arab superiority,'' Mr. Nouri said.

Historical animosities come into play in other ways. After being driven from the Aozou Strip last year, Libya moved its forward bases north, to the Fezzan region. Across 100 miles of desert, Chadian troops are entrenched in the dry, forbidding Tibesti Mountains. The fighters from this region are Toubou, the ethnic group of President Habre. The Toubous are traditionally hostile to intruders from Fezzan.

''Around 1810, in Aozou, the Toubous, armed with knives, confronted the Fezzani riflemen,'' wrote Jean Chapelle, a French historian. ''The Toubous killed them all, except for one.'' The survivor was sent back to Fezzan as a messenger. His tongue had been cut out.

Correction: June 19, 1988

Sunday, Late City Final Edition

A version of this article appears in print on June 5, 1988, on Page 1001015 of the National edition with the headline: AFRICAN DISPUTES PIT ARAB VS. BLACK. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe